Marela Zacarías Goes Big & Goes Home | Art21 "New York Close Up"

What does an artist bring to a homecoming? Working in her Bedford--Stuyvesant studio, artist Marela Zacarías undertakes “Red Meander“ (2014), a commission by the Art in Embassies program for the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico. Zacarías enlists the help of a team of eight assistants to create the fifty-eight foot long by eleven foot tall work—her largest painted sculpture to date—over the course of nine months. Comprising twenty handmade sections that fit together like a puzzle, each component is made of sanded joint compound over window screen affixed to wood supports. The undulating surface of “Red Meander“ is emblazoned in intricate patterns of sixty-seven acrylic colors inspired by Mayan patterns, specifically textiles from Chiapas and Oaxaca. “Hidden in plain sight in the clothing and decorations, these symbols survived colonization and modern times,“ says Zacarías, “Weaving became a form of cultural resistance that was passed down from mothers